Reading Randomizer

 I came across a unique challenge that is being hosted at Storygraph.  It involves random number generators to clear books off your tbr list.  You will use a list that can be sorted by author, publication date etc.  You then generate a random number and see which book that directs you to read from your list.  I used my Goodreads board that is my Want to Read.   Coincidentally I ended up with quite a number of Non fiction books on my list so that will lend itself to coordinate with the non fiction reading challenge

January Book 1: Generate a random number (1 - # of books on your TBR) and read the book that appears at that position on your TBR list. 

Perils of Paris Ana T Drew

1. The Perils of Paris (Julie Cavallo Investigates, #5) by Ana T. Drew
• Blog Post and Goodreads Review 1/4/22

January Book 2: Sort TBR list by date (published, I'm guessing) in ascending order. Generate a random number and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

A Tennis Pro to Die For Judy Moore

1. A Tennis Pro To Die For (Cozy Mysteries to Die For, #3) by Judy Moore
• Blog Post and Goodreads Review 1/11/22

February Book 1: Sort TBR list by date (published, I'm guessing) in descending order. Generate a random number and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Jackie Janet & Lee Randy Tarraborelli

February Book 2: Sort TBR list by author in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-50 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much Alison Hoover bartlett

1. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
• Blog Post and Goodreads Review 3/19/22

March Book 1: Sort TBR list by author in ascending order. Generate a random number from 50-75 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Crepe Factor Laura Childs

March Book 2: Sort TBR list by author in ascending order. Generate a random number from 75-100 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Lady Clementine  Marie Benedict 

April Book 1: Sort TBR list by author in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-# of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Deadly Deletion Lorainne Bartlett

1. A Deadly Deletion (Booktown #15) by Lorna Barrett
• Blog Post and Goodreads Review 11/10/22

April Book 2: Sort TBR list by author in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 1-50 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Eight Perfect Murders Peter Swanson

1. Eight Perfect Murders (Malcolm Kershaw, #1) by Peter Swanson
• Blog Post and Goodreads Review 4/22/22

May Book 1: Sort TBR list by author in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 50-75 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

The Thirteenth Tale Diane Setterfield

May Book 2: Sort TBR list by author in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 75-100 and read the book that appears in that position on your list.

The Seven Sisters Lucinda Riley

June Book 1: Sort TBR list by author in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 1-# of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Scone Cold Killer Lena Gregory

June Book 2: Sort TBR list by title in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-25 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Becoming Michelle Obama

July Book 1: Sort TBR list by title in ascending order. Generate a random number from 25-50 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Cilkas Journey Heather Morris

July Book 2: Sort TBR list by title in ascending order. Generate a random number from 50-75 and read the book that appears in that position on your list.

Dead Wake Erik Larson

August Book 1: Sort TBR list by title in ascending order. Generate a random number from 75-100 and read the book that appears in that position on your list.

Deep Shadow Nick Sullivan

August Book 2: Sort TBR list by title in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-# of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

The Fated Sky Mary Robinette Kowal

September Book 1: Sort TBR list by title in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 1-25 and read the book that appears in that position on your list.

What Remains Carole Radziwill

September Book 2: Sort TBR list by title in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 25-50 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Three Nights in August Buzz Bissinger

October Book 1: Sort TBR list by title in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 50-75 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Stiff Mary Roach

October Book 2: Sort TBR list by title in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 75-100 and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

The Relentless Moon Mary Robinette Kowal

November Book 1:  Sort TBR list by title in reverse alphabetical order. Generate a random number from 1-# of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Farthing Jo Walton

November Book 2: Sort TBR list by ISBN in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-# of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Diamond Doris Doris Payne

December Book 1: Sort TBR list by ISBN in ascending order. Generate a random number from 1-50 of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Christmas Candy Corpse

December Book 2: Sort TBR list by ISBN in ascending order. Generate a random number from 50-100 of books on your TBR and read the book that appears in that position on your list. 

Her Deepest Fear

Bonus: Read earliest added book on your list: The Flamenco Academy

Artemis Fowl

 I selected this book as my choice for Book becoming a movie in 2020.  It is definitely not a book I would normally have selected.  The interesting part for me was how Artemis Fowl is not at all what I expected him to be in multiple ways.  

The world that Eoin Colfer has imagined is quite intriguing and has an interesting explanations for Leprechauns and other magical creatures.  This is a great book for a child who has a vivid imagination and also likes logical/mystery type books.  I ended up enjoying the book after I settled into it as it wasn't what I was expecting at first.  The characters grew on me and they are quite well developed.

Now I just need to go watch the movie.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars 

enjoyable Middle Grade book I read for some 2020 book challenges for book becoming a movie in 2020. I found myself growing attached to the characters as time progressed in the book. It was possible to find redeeming aspects of the antagonists by the end of the story. There was some very clever plot twists/deeply thought out strategies. Now I am curious to watch the movie 

View all my reviews

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  

1. Book List Queen #1- Book Becoming Movie in 2020
2. NJM #NJMBookChallenge2020  #5- a book made into a film/tv series 
3. 2020 TBR  #2020TBRReadingChallenge #3- novel that will get a movie adaptation in 2020
4. TBR Book #56  #Backlistreader ; #MountTBR2020; #StartOnYourShelfathon

Down the Rabbit Hole

This work is an anthology of short stories by JD Robb, Mary Blayney, Elaine Fox, Mary Kay McComas, and Ruth Ryan Langan.  These stories were based loosely around connections with the story of Alice in Wonderland.  They were each different stories that had elements of fantasy or science fiction.  Generally not genres I read much from but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to read others like it.

I selected this book to cover 2 prompts for challenges this year.  The primary reason I picked it was to address the challenge of reading an author you previously disliked.  I had tried a book by J D Robb a few years ago and just could not get interested in the futuristic aspect of the story. I had selected it at the time because it was a mystery book and that is my preferred genre of choice.   I put the book down as a DNF and never intended to read it again.   This short story contained in the anthology was quite enjoyable and I may give the series another try as I did like the characters in the book.

The other prompt this covered was read an anthology.  I had not every read an anthology outside of a textbook for literature coursework.  I found myself enjoying the sampling of the works by the different authors and will possibly seek out more works by them.    I enjoyed finding the common thread in the stories as they related to the Alice in Wonderland theme.   I kind of created a scavenger hunt aspect to the book

All in all I am glad I selected this book this year and it is one of the few 5 star books I have reviewed.



Down the Rabbit Hole by J.D. Robb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very enjoyable anthology of stories

I did not know what to expect when I picked this book out at the library. I ended up thoroughly enjoying all of the stories within. Most had a reference or alluded to Alice this n Wonderland. Some were romance based but all seemed to be about finding your moral truth and becoming a great partner for your relationship. I look forward to trying individual works of these authors


View all my reviews

Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:

1. Library Love  #LibraryLoveChallenge -  Book #83
2. Literary Escapes- Scotland
3. Popsugar- #popsugarreadingchallenge  #11 anthology
4. 52 Books in 52 weeks  #50 author you previously disliked
5. Book List Queen #11 short story or essay collection
6. TBR Book #44  #Backlistreader ; #MountTBR2020; #StartOnYourShelfathon
7. Monthly Motif   #MonthlyMotifGXO-  creature feature- rabbit

Reducing the To Be Read piles

In 2020 I am embarking on several challenges designed to reduce the pile of books you mean to read.  Both physical books and ebooks as well as those just on the list but I don't already own.  I'm sure the list will never be entirely gone- what can I say,  I cannot help myself when I go to the Library I always seem to leave with an armful of books and several photos of ones I want to get later.

So,  I need a way to reduce these lists/piles.  Enter the challenges for 2020.  Some of these challenges have been discussed in previous blog posts but some of them are new to this post.  After I discuss the new ones, I am going to use the bottom of this post as way to track my progress on the challenges.  This will be a consolidated list of TBRs and many will cross over to cover other challenges I am doing, but at least there will be one place where they are all recorded as TBR accomplishments.

The challenges that I am doing that address reducing TBR piles are:

Beat the Backlist  and 2020TBR are both being tracked in separate posts as they have optional prompts to go with the basic clear your list challenge.

#BacklistReader

This challenge hosted at BookwyrmsHoard is a challenge from Jan 1- Dec 31st.  It includes books you already own plus those on your list.  The only requirement is they must be published before 2019 & already by on your list.  She is offering prize opportunities if you review books and link them to her blog.  Sign up here if you want to join me.  Use #BacklistReader on any social media.

I am trying to read at least 24 books for this one as well but there may be more since they just need to be on the list vs ownership.

#MountTBR2020 

Mount TBR at My Readers Block is a traditional TBR challenge I discussed in a previous Blog Post  "Set a goal & Track"

 My goal is to scale Mount Blanc- 24 books

Status:  55/24 Read

#StartOnYourShelfathon 

Hosted at the Quiet Pond is a fun story based approach to the traditional pile reduction challenge.  My post about this one with my star map that I have created can be found here in my blog post "Castor's Star Map #StartOnYourShelfathon"  This challenge started Dec 13, 2019 so feel free to start whittling down that pile before the year ends.